A great article by Fraser Speirs regarding iPads, public schools, and the need for a better student:computer ratio.

Speirs sites the GSMA’s prediction that there will be 50 billion internet-connected devices on the planet by the year 2025. This would equate to approximately 7 internet-connected devices per person. At first that number sounds outrageous, but then I thought about it for a moment.

In my home there are 10 internet-connected devices:

Thermostat

Blu-Ray Player

Apple TV

iPod Touch

iPhone

Original iPad

iPad 2

MacBook Air

MacBook Pro

PowerBook G4

In another 15 years that number could easily double or triple.

We have long envisioned the future as being one where everything was completely automated and connected. In some ways, we are closer to it than we think. Or, as Speirs wrote:

To paraphrase William Gibson, ubiquitous computing is here – it’s just not built into the furniture. We don’t have smart floors or LCD walls, sensor grids in the ceilings or the Internet on our fridge. We are almost all, however, carrying a pocket device that connects at some level to the network.